Discussion Board

Well this morning was interesting. I woke up with joint pain, my back and big toe and index finger were all hurting and throbbing. This is something that has built up and bothered me over just the last couple years. I'd noticed lately that I had a pain free period and wondered if the dietary mods were helping. I got more hopeful of that recently when reading about omega 6, omega 3 stuff and how critical it is to avoid high omega 6. So is it possible the restaurant food triggered a bunch of joint inflammation? Or am I just psyching myself out?

I'm not even sure what the exact trigger would have been. The dairy (cream in the drink) kind of jumps out as something I don't normally consume at all, but I have to notice that I've still had a lot of joint pain since eliminating dairy.

Anyway it made me decide to forgo eating the leftovers today and go back to normal, plain food.

Went to two holiday parties this past weekend. I barely ate at the first one, just had a slice of baguette and a piece of grilled zucchini. At the second, there were really quite a few good options. I had fresh fruit, several slices of some baked squash (couldn't tell what it was exactly, it was rings), salad, bread and hummus (that was my contribution). Eventually I had half a piece of cake and a few almonds. It certainly wasn't oil-free or dairy-free, but I didn't come away feeling overfull and I didn't overdo it on sweets.

Sounds like you made it through those tough situations very well. Congratulations!

Thanks Dissolution.

We've got a few of those coming up as well. Hope to do as well as you did. They are potlucks so there should be some things that will be both appealing and healthy. Fortunately I don't have as much of a taste for desserts as I used to.

Thanks Dendra. Potlucks are a bit easier since you can bring something tasty for yourself. With the simpler eating my threshold for "treats" was really lower, just having bread and more variety of veggies and fruits felt like a big indulgence.

Stocked up on groceries tonight. I was disappointed the sweet potato selection is down to pre-Thanksgiving levels (just a few hit or miss specimens). Don't they know sweet potatoes are staple food for some of us??!!

I got a new veggie, a Delicata squash. It looks like the one I ate at the party, so I'm going to try baking it. I avoid buying squashes since they're so hard to cut and scrape out. I really need a better chef's knife or a sharpener. Mine just doesn't cut it (yuk yuk).

Well my off-plan food consumption crept up a bit today, I had 2 office candies and 2 slices of olive bread leftover from my potluck contribution. Gotta remember there's no reason to be eating treat food every single day.

I've been slogging through this article http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2 ... ustry.html and all the comments on it. He's written several posts on the tie between food reward and overeating.

I watched the 60 minutes report on the flavoring industry. I was really quite shocked, they spoke openly about how when working on a drink they would design the flavor to really burst onto the tongue and then dissipate rapidly, so that you would crave more.

Anything with artificial or natural flavor added has been engineered. It's not wonder some people don't like the taste of "real" vegetables. I have sons that would rather eat a hot pocket or tv dinner than something my wife made from scratch.

When we explain our WOE to people and they have that automatic reaction of "I could never give up meat", are they thinking butcher-shop meat or are they thinking chicken mcnugget "meat"?

I see this perfectly in our cats. A couple decades ago they would eat people food and love any chicken or turkey we would give to them. Did I say 'love'? I mean the little carnivours went crazy and devoured it.

Well, over they years we've regularly fed them basic cat food, both dry and in cans. I've seen their taste preferences change to now they simply will turn and walk away from any natural meat at all. I am convinced the cat food makers have put somehting in the food so 'real' food will be totally unappealing and they will have customers for life.

As to people, I agree that 'constructed' food makes you want more of it. That is no coincidence. And why it's more difficult for the SAD eaters who are used to consuming lots of processed foods to change their diets.

I had a kid's party to attend last night at a restaurant. The menu was strictly salad, pizza, burgers, fried appetizers, and desserts. I didn't make the greatest food choices. I arrived very hungry and the group was late, then ordering took some time, so by the time the first appetizers arrived I was famished. Thus I ate some very greasy onion rings and french fries.

For food I'd ordered a veggie pizza. I had planned to do no-cheese, but at the last minute added mozzarella back onto the order. I still occasionally eat an Amy's cheese pizza so I thought I'd be ok with it, but it was a lot more cheese than those have, plus the crust had obviously been coated with oil. I kept munching the fries through the meal as well. So I ended up having over half a 10" pizza, maybe 1/3 of an order of fries, and a few bites of onion rings. Not a huge volume of food, and I didn't feel overstuffed at the end, but wow, the fat content was waaaay more than I'm used to. I was uncomfortable for several hours afterward.

This seems like somewhat of a repeat of my experience at my last restaurant meal. I could have ordered something much lighter (a plain veggie salad perhaps with some avocado) or a cheese-less veggie pizza. Yet somehow the "this needs to be an indulgent meal" mindset kicked in and I didn't do that. Then I didn't even particularly enjoy the fatty food or the aftereffects.

So obviously I needed to eat a bit beforehand thus not to be sitting there famished when the fried food was put in front of me. Then I'm not sure what's stopping me from ordering more on-plan at these types of things.

I had a good food day yesterday, and a partly good food day today. I had a social event disrupt my dinner schedule, and ended up using that to justify having some salted nuts from the bowl at work, then a couple of spice cookies and a slice of leftover pizza instead of dinner. I also had my normal oatmeal/fruit, rice/veggies, and nuked tater + banana. So basically an extra "meal" of junk on top of a good food day. Hmmm.

Well I'll give myself credit for eating lots of good food, and not eating even more junk. It really does kinda seem like there's a scared little junk food addict in me, working to distract me and set up opportunities to eat junk the second my resolve is weakened.

Tried some new food lately:

Potato "lasagna": I figured thinly sliced potatoes are similar to lasagna noodles, so I layered potatoes, sliced zucchini, and tomato sauce, added some capers and a dab of off-plan ricotta cheese and parmesan. It was yummy, had just enough of that lasagna taste, and I didn't miss the mozzarella. Would like to find a truly vegan potato casserole recipe. (Update: well such a recipe wasn't hard to find at all. Could've used tofu for the filling and soy parmesan for the topping)

Grilled zucchini: just grilled slices on the George Foreman, no oil. Wasn't sure this would work but it was tasty. Also grilled some thin-sliced potatoes. Finally it worked. My prior attempts at grilling potatoes were just sliced too thick.

Delicata squash: sliced this in rings, cut out the seeds from the center, and baked it on a cookie sheet. I'd had this recently at a party and the skin was tender enough to eat. Somehow my skins didn't end up that tender, but it was still good.

Man, I had some really intense off-plan food cravings tonight. I had a 40 minute drive home and was mildly hungry. In my mind I decided nothing on-plan sounded appealing at all. I thought through the options, including the junk at home, stuff I could get at the store, and what drive-thrus would be open at this hour. The winner (in my mind) was two eggs over easy with dry whole wheat toast. That, or else two McDonald's hamburgers with a small Diet Coke. I ate those meals in my mind, in detail, on the drive home. I felt like a nutcase. I don't even like Diet Coke! I got home and was really not very hungry at all. I put some potatoes on to boil, made some mint tea, and had a banana. Ended up having mashed potatoes and leftover veggie stew after the banana. I didn't even indulge in any of the off-plan stuff in the house.

It was really quite a vivid little mental trip. I decided this diet was insane, what was I thinking, to imagine I could live on potatoes, rice, oatmeal, and veggies. I was seriously confused by whether this was the voice of sanity, or the voice of addiction. Just the fact that it was so late at night and such a sudden turnaround made me suspect it was not the voice of reason. Anyway I'm glad I ate my normal food and didn't act on whatever the heck was going on.

B: oatmeal, cherries
L: hash browns
S: grilled sweet potato
D: ww pasta, veggie mix
S2: banana
D2: mashed potatoes, veggie stew
off-plan: 3 girardelli peppermint & dark chocolate squares

Have you read Geneen Roth's Women, Food, and God?
There is insight in that book about what is behind strong food cravings when they are not related to real hunger. It is not a religious book but rather about food/eating compulsivity.

Yes I read that recently. Maybe I should read it again. I think it all made sense to me, that the cravings aren't about food, but then I don't manage to figure out what they really are about. This one just kinda dissipated after a while.